From the CW Nevius in the Chronicle. The best part is this quote from Rose Pak: “We are saying don’t take us for granted,” said Pak. “We will work against your candidate, even if means supporting Peskin.” sfchronicle/bayarea/nevius/article/Electoral-rivals-already-circling-new-S-F-supe-6010592.php?t=eb689ce7cd61146f10&cmpid=twitter-premium#/0 Electoral rivals already circling new S.F. supe Julie Christensen Well, Julie Christensen has been the supervisor of District Three for five days. That’s enough of a honeymoon, so let’s start handicapping the November election. When Mayor Ed Lee appointed Christensen last week to fill the seat left vacant when David Chiu won election to the state Assembly, his hope was that Christensen could win an election on Nov. 3 to finish out Chiu’s term and then get re-elected to two more four-year terms. That would give Lee, and moderate San Franciscans, a reliable vote for nearly 10 years. But any choice was bound to create hurt feelings, and Lee knew that some people — particularly Chinatown power broker Rose Pak — were not going to be happy. Pak was supporting Planning Commission President Cindy Wu, who was seen as a more progressive politician and less likely to support Lee consistently. Pak felt that since Lee had the strong backing of Chinatown in his mayoral election, he should reciprocate by appointing an Asian American supervisor. He didn’t, and Pak is running out of words to describe her feelings. Oakland mayor gets up-close look at city’s racial Julie Christensen acknowledges supporters, family members and fellow supervisors after she is appointed to fill the vacant District 3 seat on the Board of Supervisors by Mayor Ed Lee in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan 7, 2015. Christensen takes over from David Chiu, who was elected to the state assembly in November. Electoral rivals already circling new S.F. supe Julie Christensen Farmers, utilities lose bid to overturn delta smelt protections SFFD urged to end opposition to attempts to slow traffic Season of Sharing donor list for Jan. 13 Cupertino crash victim ID’d — driver fell asleep on I-280 “It’s beyond disappointment,” she said. “It’s mind-boggling. I’m bewildered, dumbfounded and shocked.” The appointment has, inevitably, set a whole series of wheels in motion. For starters, former Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin says he’s thinking about running. (Although, let’s be serious, Peskin was already in a three-point stance and wearing his track shoes. All he needed was a reason to run. Still, as of Monday, Peskin said he hadn’t filed candidacy papers.) There’s also a chance that Wu will decide to run, which would bring lots of possibilities into play. Conventional wisdom is that Wu would get the Chinatown voting bloc, but as political strategist David Latterman says, “You know who else is popular in Chinatown? Ed Lee.” And then there’s Jon Golinger, Peskin’s protege, who was planning to run in November. Will he step aside if Peskin runs? Or since he was already planning to run against Wu, will Golinger carry through, regardless? It all sets up the potential for a real donnybrook, which is terrific for newspaper columnists but could get very unpleasant. “It’s going to get ugly,” Latterman said. “They’ll attack Julie, and she’ll attack back. Ed Lee is going to have to get involved in this, especially if Chinatown becomes a major factor.” And I think we can take the “if” out of that sentence. “We are saying don’t take us for granted,” said Pak. “We will work against your candidate, even if means supporting Peskin.” Those are the basics. But there’s some nuance to this, too. And frankly, for all the rhetoric, there are reasons to think Christensen may well weather this. For starters, the idea that the progressive Peskin will steamroll the opposition in D3 needs some examination. Remember, Peskin was last elected to the board in 2004 and was termed out in 2008. (He is able to run again because he has been out of office for a full four-year term.) The point is things have changed in the district in 10-plus years, although we can debate the extent of the change. One certainty is that some of the reliably progressive Tenderloin precincts that were in D3 were moved to D6 in 2012. That’s just a fact — fewer progressive precincts. Second, D3 hasn’t toed the progressive line recently. Chiu, a moderate, won D3 convincingly over David Campos in the Assembly race. (Granted, D3 was his district, but if ideology was supposed to be a factor, it’s significant.) Also, proposals like the progressive initiative to tax housing speculators lost in D3 in the last election. Then there are the voters. Latterman, who tracks these things, says Chinatown is traditionally not a high-turnout area. However, he says, neighborhoods like Russian Hill, the Barbary Coast and Nob Hill have enthusiastic voters. And those are definitely not progressive bastions. And finally, Peskin is a complicated candidate. He’s crazy-smart, politically astute and deeply committed. However, he can also be a prickly presence. Citywide, Latterman says polling still shows a lot of negatives. Part of that has to be from the contentious days on the board when Peskin was running the show and mercurial Chris Daly was shouting obscenities. “We remember the Aaron Peskin-Chris Daly show,” Latterman said. “I think a lot of people don’t want to go back to that.” We will know in November. But make no mistake, the race starts now. C.W. Nevius is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His columns appear Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail: cwnevius@sfchronicle Twitter: @cwnevius
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 00:49:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015